Soccer-Negredo seals move to Man City, Sevilla say

MADRID, July 17 (Reuters) – Sevilla have agreed to sell their Spain striker Alvaro Negredo to English Premier League side Manchester City pending a medical, the La Liga club said on Wednesday.

“It’s now official,” Sevilla said in a statement on their website (www.sevillafc.es).

“Alvaro Negredo is a new Manchester City player pending medical checks,” the statement said, adding that the player would bid farewell to the club in a ceremony later on Wednesday at their Sanchez Pizjuan stadium.

Spanish media reported City would pay around 28 million euros ($37 million) for the 27-year-old Negredo, who will rejoin compatriot Jesus Navas, the Spain winger who sealed his move from Sevilla to Manchester last month.

Known as “the beast of Vallecas” after the Madrid neighbourhood where he was born, Negredo came through the youth ranks at local club Rayo Vallecano and then Real Madrid where he played a handful of games for the first team.

The powerfully-built forward was sold to newly-promoted Almeria in 2007, where he played for two seasons, before Real bought him back and then sold him on to Sevilla in 2009.

Strong in the air and armed with a thunderous left-foot shot, Negredo was the highest-scoring Spanish player in La Liga last season with 25 goals and netted six in six appearances in the King’s Cup.

He has won 14 international caps, scoring six goals, and was a part of Spain’s victorious Euro 2012 squad.

Including Negredo, Sevilla have now sold five players to England in the current transfer window: Navas, Luis Alberto to Liverpool, Antonio Luna to Aston Villa and Jose Campana to Crystal Palace. ($1 = 0.7637 euros) (Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Justin Palmer and Pritha Sarkar)